Embracing the Cold
by 82and9make91
Summary: After a hard battle that they were lucky to escape from, Gray is left to look after an unconscious Lucy and Erza. He was getting by the best he could...and then the cold wind started to blow. a tiny bit of GrayZa ONE-SHOT


_This is another story I wrote a while ago for a contest...Uhh...I'll explain more later. Enjoy!_

_'Fairy Tail' belongs to Hiro Mashima  
_

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**Embracing the Cold**

"How do we keep getting into these messes?"

The question I asked went unanswered as my two comrades, my _nakama_ couldn't answer me. I currently had Lucy hanging over my right shoulder as I used my right arm to keep her balanced in place. On my left side Erza's arm was currently draped around my left shoulder and my left arm was keeping her in a standing position. Her feet dragged on the ground as we slowly moved forward but that couldn't be helped. Both of them were unconscious and covered in bruises, cuts, and their own blood. I wasn't much better off, but it didn't matter to me. I could have no legs and I still would have found a way to get them out of there.

It had started simply enough. The job was to take care of a group of thieves that had held up in a mountain range, but once we arrived we found out that it wasn't just a bunch of thieves but an entire dark guild that pretended to just be common criminals.

It was four against a hundred or so. You should see the other guys.

But it still took its tole on us as both Erza and Lucy reached the point of exhaustion and ended up in their current state. All that was left was their guild master and Natsu being as much of an idiot as ever, insisted on fighting him alone and told me to get the others out of there. If the others were able to reach safety on their own I would have protested but I held my tongue, and so here I was trying to get as far away as I could. It feels like I'm running away, which is a feeling I hate, but I'll ignore it for now.

There are other things I'm trying to ignore at the moment as well. I'm almost at my limit and it feels like with every step I get closer to dropping to the ground. Theres also an annoying gash above my right eye that won't stop bleeding. Its caused me to have to shut my eye which is limiting my vision. I'd try and wipe my blood away but my hands are kind of full at the moment.

That reminds me, although I feel ashamed to admit it because its such a meaningless thing at this point, but the thing that is distracting me the most is that both Lucy and Erza are practically naked.

Erza had reequipped into her two sworded armor that I could never remember the name of. It shows a lot of skin as always, and I wonder why she gets onto me for losing my clothes. I mean when you think about it she strips just as much as I do! Then theres Lucy, her outfits are usually pretty revealing to, but it doesn't help that her clothes had been cut in so many places that she might as well be wearing rags at the moment.

Luckily for me though, by some miracle, I still have my shirt and jacket on. Its torn to bits as well but still intact. If it wasn't there would be a little to much skin to skin contact going on for my taste.

As I continue to move along I can't help but roll my eyes at myself for my own stupid immature way of thinking. _So what if you can almost see everything, lives are at stake, get over it!_I yell in my mind. I'm not a pervert like that flamer says I am after all.

After a while I loose track of time and I can't remember how long I've been walking. I turn slightly and I can still see the building that was hidden between the large rocks and I realize that I'm not really all that far away. It feels like my effort hasn't amounted to much and my fatigue starts to take over. For the first time I can ever remember thinking I start to feel like Lucy should lose weight. She'd kill me if I ever told her that to her face of course.

I decided that it would be best if I stopped to gather my strength, I can't see or hear anyone around, and if I just keep moving eventually I would be out of it to and that would help no one. The act of sitting down is easier said then done however.

I slowly try to bend my knees so I can sit on the ground and then sit them both down softly, but I underestimated how weak my limbs had become, because half way down my knees gave out and the three of us hit the ground with an ugly sounding thud.

I let out a gasp of shock and pain but quickly sat up to make sure they were both alright. Erza is lying next to me and she doesn't seem any worse off then she had been. I look over and Lucy his lying face down. I turn her and look her over and I can't see anything else that is wrong with her other then the fact that she, like all three of us, wasn't in a very good state of being.

Pushing off the ground with my now free hands I stood up and presided to pull Lucy next to Erza. At that very moment a cold wind blew past us all and it didn't stop.

There is a God up there, and he is mocking me.

We were up in the mountains after all, but until that moment it had been relatively warm as it was Summer. The cold doesn't bother me of course but this is the last thing they need at this moment. Suddenly me still having my clothes is a blessing is disguise. I pushed them as close together as I could and placed my jacket over them both, then I placed my shirt on them. It wasn't much but all I could do at the moment.

All I could do now was wait.

I hadn't heard anything coming from the direction of the building in a while and that wasn't a good thing. Natsu makes more noise then anyone when he fights so what was going on with him? I was so lost in my thoughts that I almost didn't hear a voice call to me.

"Gray?"

I could barely recognize Erza's voice. It was horse and barely more then a whisper which was hard for me to hear over the howling wind. I looked to her and she was looking up at me with one eye open. Her other eye has hidden behind her hair. It was a time like this I wish I was better with words.

"Hey, how are you doing?" I asked and I bent down next to her. _What a stupid thing to ask_I thought.

"Been better...Lucy?...Natsu?" she muttered.

"Lucy is right here and Natsu...well his off doing what he usually does." I answered trying to sound confident.

"Causing more harm then good I'm sure..."she said back and I tried to smile.

Silence fell upon us and I kept myself busy be readjusting the jacket and shirt on both of them and trying to position myself between them and the oncoming wind. I wanted so badly to do more but I was powerless at the moment.

"Are you cold?" I asked her after a while. She nodded softly and I tried to hold down the jacket as best I could.

"Its to quite...Natsu..." she spoke softly.

"I know, but I'm sure his fine." I'd imagine I sounded more like I was trying to convince myself more then her because her visible eye seemed to widened when I said it. I needed to say words that actually meant something. It was that look in her eye, I didn't like it. I reached under the jacket and held her hand,leaned over her so that our faces were close enough for her to see into my eyes.

"Your the great Titania, and we're Fairy Tail, do you think something like these could stop us?" I said without blinking. Just then a large explosion could be heard and I looked up to see the top of the building in the distance erupted in flames and the sky turn to gold with fire.

I look back down back down at her and said "You can always count on an idiot."

She smiled and suddenly it didn't feel so cold any more.

_The End._

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_Like I mentioned in the beginning this was a story I wrote as part of a contest. That was about a month or so ago and back then I really **hated **this story. You see, I found out last minute that I needed to do this and I literally came up with the idea, wrote, and published it, in two hours. Which caused it to be full of typos (which I hopefully fixed all of them) , and once I was done with it I didn't like it at all as it felt like a horrible rushed mess. But recently that contest came to a close and there was a kind of 'best of' showcase and this story was actually in it. Once I saw that I thought more about this story and I didn't hate it as much (although I'm not a big fan of it still). So thats the long a complected story of how this fanfic came to be! :D  
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_This probably would have had more GrayZa but as all of us GrayZa fans know, its not as popular as other ships and I wanted to give my team the best chance of doing well in that section of the contest. I'm going to try and write more GrayZa and other stories down the line.  
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_Well thanks for reading and leave a review if you feel like it! :)  
_


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